Friday, December 20, 2013

A housefly will eat almost anything. If the
food is liquid, the fly just sucks it up. But if it’s solid, things get a bit
more complicated. After all, a fly doesn’t have teeth.

The fly ejects a mix of saliva and digestive
juices from its stomach. The vomit breaks down food from the outside in. Then
the fly mops up the meal with its sponge-like mouthparts. That’s something to
think about the next time you see a fly on your food.

For
more gross facts about our animal neighbors, check out Animal Grossapedia. But
be sure not to read it right after lunch!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Since next week is Christmas, this is my last
Wednesday post of the year. So it seems like the perfect time to talk about
endings.

Endings are hard for me.

When I was in journalism school, we were taught to
frontload our articles because in the world of newspapers, it’s very common for
editors to lob off the last few paragraphs of a story at the last minute. In
other words, there was no reason to spend tons of time trying to tie everything
up with a pretty little bow. Snip. Snip.

But books are an entirely different beast. Authors
don’t have all the space in the world, but if length is an issue, cuts will
probably happen in the middle of the piece, not at the end. Editors demand that
we craft a satisfying, if not neat, ending.

So I’ve had to adapt.

Sometimes, I get lucky. I manage
to get it right in the very first draft and it stays the same throughout the
revision process, at least in spirit if not in actual word choice.

But if that doesn’t happen, finding just the right
ending usually turns into a long, tortuous process. I flounder around for
weeks, months, occasionally even years. And more often than not it is the sage
advice of my editor or someone in my critique group that sets me in the right
direction.

Why are endings so hard? I have no idea, but I
remain hopeful that one day something will suddenly click in my mind and I’ll
have a moment of clarity in which I suddenly understand how to craft the
perfect ending.

Monday, December 16, 2013

1-LS1-1. Use materials to
design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use
their external parts to help them survive, grow,and meet their needs. [Clarification Statement:
Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal
solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists
by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing
structures by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders
by mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and, detecting intruders by
mimicking eyes and ears.]

We’ve looked at
this PE in a whole bunch of different ways over the last few weeks, but the trickiest
part of all is the engineering component. Some of you say, “Why are second
graders supposed to look at this content through an engineering lens?” It’s a
god question, and I don’t have a good answer. If I were writing standards, I
wouldn’t have done this, but when given lemons . . .

Here
are a few books that really can help you make lemonade, so to speak:

Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty

Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again by Juliana Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff, and
Craig Hatkoff

After reading Winter's Tail, work with r class to create a table that
focuses on the problems
the team faced while designing and building the prosthesis and how they dealt with each
challenge. The table might look something like this:

Problem

Solution

No tail
joint for attaching the prosthesis

Made a
mold of her tail stub and created a sleeve that fits her body perfectly

Worried
about irritating Winter’s skin

Developed
special silicone gel that made prosthesis comfortable

The
prosthesis must mimic real tail movements

After
several tries, developed a design with two sleeves

Winter
might not like wearing the prosthesis

Trainers
worked with Winter

Then
ask the following questions:

·How did the people in this book solve
Winter’s problem? (They designed a prosthetic tail and trained Winter to
use it.)

·How did Winter’s prosthetic tail mimic, or
work in the same way as, a real dolphin tail? (It powered Winter through the water
by moving up and down.)

Turn to the
backmatter section entitled “Kevin Carroll and Hanger Prosthetics &
Orthotics.” After paraphrasing the information in this section in
student-friendly language, ask the following questions:

Now
write the following steps on a chart paper and let your class know that they
represent the steps scientists and engineers usually follow when designing and
building something new:

1.
Identify a Problem

2.
Identify Challenges

3.
Share Ideas

4.
Design

5.
Build

6.
Test

Compare
the steps to the process described in Winter’s
Tail. How are they similar? How are they different?

Activity

Divide
the students into five design teams and assign each team one of the following
design tasks:

You need to water a vegetable garden, but the
garden hose is full of holes and you can’t get to the store to buy a new
hose.

You need to clean up a wad of gum stuck to the
ceiling before your mom gets home.

You need to get a bouncy ball trapped under a
dresser.

You need to clean up a spill, but you don’t have
paper towels or a sponge.

You
need to find your way around a dark place without a flashlight, candles, or
anything else that produced light.

Let
students know that to solve their assigned problem, they will design a gadget that
mimics, or works in the same way as, one of the plant or animal body parts in
the data table below.

Plant/Animal Part and Use
Data Table

Plant/Animal Part

How It Is Used

Tree
trunk

Carries
water from the tree’s roots to its leaves

Tree
roots

Soaks
up water

Mole
nose

Has
sensors that help a mole avoid getting lost in underground tunnels

Anteater
tongue

Sticks
way out to catch food

Gecko
feet

Can
walk up walls and across ceilings, so a gecko can find food and escape from
enemies

Ask
students to review the six-step design process one more time. Explain that since
they now know the problem (Step 1) and the challenge (Step 2), each team should
brainstorm to share ideas on small, handheld whiteboards (Step 3) as they develop
a design. Encourage the children to use their imaginations for this activity.
Let them know that that even though the people in Winter’s Tail built and tested their designs, the class’s final
step will be to draw a visual model (picture) of their group’s design (Step 4).

When
the students have finished the activity, invite the groups take turns sharing
their visual models with the class. As the children present, encourage them to explain
their designs and how they mimic the actions of their assigned plant or animal
body parts.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Common Core is in the news almost daily. A lot of people
don’t like the new standards, or at least the standardized testing that comes
along with them. But the fact is that CCSS has been adopted by most of America,
so teachers have to address the new standards regardless of the political
frenzy swirling all around them.

So the best thing we can do as authors of nonfiction as well as fiction
is help them. With that goal in mind, I thought I’d share some general strategies for authors
who would like to guide educators in using their books to meet the Common Core standards.

1. Write discussion questions that help students identify a book’s main
idea and key details.

Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple

2. Develop a teacher’s guide with activities that help students build
vocabulary; understand connections and relationships between key ideas,
events or individuals in a book; and examine a book’s structure.

David LaRochelle

3. Offer writers’ workshops that focus on such topics as structure,
voice, and word choice.

6. If you write picture books or photo-illustrated books, write blog
posts, create videos, or develop school visits or classroom materials that
highlight the connection between pictures and words in your books.

Steve Jenkins

7. Speak at local and national conferences for teachers and librarians about specific aspects of writing
craft.

8. Develop worksheets and visual aids that educators can use to teach
specific aspects of writing craft.

9. Create lists of fiction and nonfiction titles that have a connection
to your book, so students can compare the texts.

10. Provide links to related media on your website, so students can
compare them to your book.

Loree Griffin Burns

Do you have other ideas about how authors can help
educators address the goals of Common Core? I’d love to hear them.

Monday, December 9, 2013

1-LS1-1. Use materials to
design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use
their external parts to help them survive, grow,and meet their needs. [Clarification Statement:
Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal
solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists
by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing
structures by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders
by mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and, detecting intruders by
mimicking eyes and ears.]

So
far, we’ve looked at three ways of addressing the animal portion of this PE,
but don’t forget the plants. There aren’t as many great plant books out there
as I’d like, but here are some suggestions for a lesson that focuses on how a
plant’s parts help it live, grow, and make more plants.

Jack’s
Garden by Henry Cole

Plant
Secrets by Emily Goodman

The Curious Garden by
Peter Brown

No Monkeys, No Chocolate by
Melissa Stewart

Activity 1

Invite your students
to create visual acrostic poems that describe how a plant’s parts help it
survive. Here’s an example:

P [picture of a pea flower]

L[picture of leaf
collecting sunlight]

A[picture of an apple
cut in half to show seeds]

N[picture of nut]

T[picture of water
moving up the trunk of a tall tree]

When the students are
done, you can post their poems on a bulletin board.

Activity 2

Use Google
Images to find an illustration of a plant that has lovely flowers and an
extensive root system. Divide the class into two groups. Group A will pretend
to be the plant’s flowers. Group B will pretend to be the roots. Encourage
Group A to act as though they are proud of being so beautiful. Ask them what
they think of the roots? Are they as lovely or important? Invite Group B to try
to convince the flowers that a plant’s roots are just as important as its
flowers. As the groups converse with one another, encourage them to back up
their statements with evidence from the books they read.

Friday, December 6, 2013

At mating time, a female fieldfare builds a
neat nest near the top of a tree. After laying her eggs, she works hard to protect her home. Know what happens if an enemy
gets too close? BOMBS AWAY! The devoted mama poops on the predator.

After the chicks
are born, their dad gets in on the action. He and his mate take turns feeding
the little ones and showering scat on enemies.

For
more gross facts about our animal neighbors, check out Animal Grossapedia. But
be sure not to read it right after lunch!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A few weeks ago, I mentioned
that, I think of the cumulative text in my picture book No Monkeys, No Chocolate as a book-long example of conceptual
scaffolding. This was a new term for a lot of readers, so I thought I’d look at
the idea of conceptual scaffolding in more detail.

Conceptual scaffolding is an
extended passage that explains a complex idea or process by meeting readers
where they are and then leading them down a path to understanding. In addition
to providing pertinent background information, it may involve dispelling
preexisting misconceptions.

When employing this
technique, it can be really helpful to begin with a universal experience. From
there, authors can provide readers with the building blocks they will need to
slowly assemble a clear, logical explanation in their own minds.

Here are some recent books
that make excellent use of conceptual scaffolding to explain very difficult
scientific ideas in ways that young readers can really understand:

Monday, December 2, 2013

1-LS1-1. Use materials to
design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use
their external parts to help them survive, grow,and meet their needs. [Clarification Statement:
Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant or animal
solutions could include designing clothing or equipment to protect bicyclists
by mimicking turtle shells, acorn shells, and animal scales; stabilizing
structures by mimicking animal tails and roots on plants; keeping out intruders
by mimicking thorns on branches and animal quills; and, detecting intruders by
mimicking eyes and ears.]

We’re
still working our way through PE 1-LS1-1.
Here are some books and activity ideas for addressinghowanimals protect themselves from predators.

What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve JenkinsSwimmy by Leo Lionni

Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India by
Gerald McDermott Never Smile at a Monkey by
Steve Jenkins

Disappearing Desmond by
Anna Alter

Where in the Wild? by David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy

Activity 1

Invite students
to choose one of the animals described in What
Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? and act out its defense
strategy. Can other members of the class guess which animal the child is
pretending to be?

Activity 2

Create a
bulletin board with the title: How Do Animals
Protect Themselves from Predators? Provide art materials and time for each
student to create a representation of how one of the animals they’ve learned
about protects itself from being eaten.

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About Me

Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 180 nonfiction books for children. Her lifelong fascination with the natural world led her to earn a B.S.
in biology and M.A. in science journalism. When Melissa isn’t writing or speaking to children or educators, she’s usually exploring natural places near her home or around the world.